The latest regulations for healthcare privacy and security highlight the importance of becoming and remaining compliant in all aspects of medical-records and health data management.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes a provision called the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). Under this legislation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will have the funding to conduct compliance audits to enforce privacy rules under the newly strengthened Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

In addition, the law requires businesses associates and healthcare providers, including transcriptionists, contract coders, third-party billers, storage vendors and others, to comply with the strengthened HIPAA security and privacy rules.

The latest regulations are a significant challenge for medical providers and business associates. The law emphasizes the importance of having a compliant system of electronic and paper record-keeping, among other things. While it will cost many healthcare organizations significant dollars to become compliant, the legislation does push along the much-needed movement toward electronic health records and better overall compliance.

Although the regulations will prove to be difficult for many healthcare providers, being fully compliant with the law will ultimately save money and boost productivity – but should not be overwhelmingly difficult for those vendors with a strong healthcare focus. Many business associates, however, may need to evaluate the cost versus benefit of retaining health information under the new laws. A new tiered penalty structure, along with new breach notification laws, make managing health information in any form a more serious process.

EvriChart is one of just a few information management companies fully compliant with HITECH. Check back frequently to monitor updates on security and privacy topics and check out EvriChart on Twitter to stay informed.